Coastal Bend area and state
in need of realtime writers and captioners; new training program to fill
workforce demand

Click here to watch our

new commercial
introducing the

Judicial Realtime/

Closed Captioning
Program

at Del Mar College

Click here to watch a short video
with more information on the

Judicial Realtime/Closed Captioning
Program at Del Mar College

You might not realize how important realtime
writers’ and captioners’ roles are when watching your favorite television
program, news or sportscast. But for individuals who are hearing impaired,
closed captioning is their window to the world when the words to audio that
most of us take for granted show up on the screen.

Another benefit of closed captioning is helping
speakers of other languages learn English when they see and not just hear
what’s being said.

Thanks to a Congressionally-directed $381,000 grant through the U.S.
Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education
(FIPSE) and the assistance of U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, Del Mar College’s
Court Reporting Program in the Department of Business Administration will
expand its offerings. The funds will allow the College to develop and offer a new
closed captioning program and acquire more equipment and
advanced technology, expand facilities, recruit and train more students and
offer scholarships to individuals interested in the field.

“100 percent of what you see on television is
required to be captioned, and we don’t have enough captioners to fill this
demand,” says Darcy Gohlke, DMC professor of court reporting.

Funding to develop and implement a DMC closed
captioning program runs Aug. 1, 2009 through July 31, 2011.

According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook
2008-2009, court reporter employment will grow 25 percent through 2016 due
to “increasing numbers of civil and criminal cases, coupled with federal
telecommunications legislation that requires television captioning and the
increasing demand for realtime communication access for people who are deaf and
hard of hearing under the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Based on that assessment, the bureau predicts that
job opportunities for court reporters are expected to be excellent, noting that
openings will probably continue to outnumber job seekers.

“Because of that increased demand for court reporters due to the need
for closed captioners, we’re excited to receive the Congressionally-directed
funds to add a closed captioning component to our current program,” says
Gohlke. “Del Mar College students will not only receive training but have
expanded career opportunities.” She says that the program will also address
realtime writing for the Internet, or Webcasting, as well.

Gohlke notes that former Del Mar College court
reporting students have already provided closed captioning services, including
1995 graduate Kim Kolpack, who captioned election returns and other shows for
NBC and CBS as well as worked for PBS, A&E and MTV. In 2004, former DMC
student Marie Bryant provided the captions for the Super Bowl.

The National Court Reporting Association reports
that salaried
positions for broadcast captioners can range from $45,000 to $75,000, and
independent contractors can earn from $36,000 to more than twice that amount
depending on the number of on-air hours. Communication Access Real-time Translation, or CART, reporters can earn
between $35,000 and $65,000 per year.

In a July 28 news release distributed by Rep. Ortiz’s
Washington, D.C. office, the Congressman stated, “This program will serve
students by offering training that was not previously available at Del Mar. This
money will teach students about closed captioning and how it is done, while
serving the needs of our hearing-impaired in the Coastal Bend community.”

Gohlke agrees, adding, “Del Mar College will offer
the training necessary for students in our community to fill this need by offering
training previously unavailable for a profession where jobs are available,
serving employers to fill open positions with skilled and trained employees and
filling an identified gap in service for the hearing impaired and broader
communities who benefit from realtime writing and captioning services.”

To learn more about Del Mar College’s Court Reporting Program in
the Department of Business Administration, contact Darcy Gohlke, Professor of
Court Reporting, at 361.698.1419 or dgohlke@delmar.edu.